Freshfields Insight: Life at a Law Firm

Cambridge-Hitachi has developed a free e-learning resource for international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP to offer young people an insight into a career in law.

Freshfields Insight: Life at a Law Firm is a role-play based programme that allows students to discover the wide range of opportunities available within the legal profession. A series of four workshops offer schools and businesses the flexibility to deliver either a day-long activity or shorter theme-based sessions as suits their planning.

This free resource will help students:

Understand skills required for a career within a law firm – students work in groups to rank a range of skills in order of relevance to a legal career. This is supported by videos of Freshfields employees talking about the skills important to them in their careers.

Challenge their perception of lawyers – students are presented with a range of statements about lawyers and the legal profession and asked to say which are true and which are false.

Develop an understanding of the breadth of career options within law – modules include intellectual property and due diligence to broaden students’ understanding of the range of specialisms outside of criminal law.

Encourage participation

- Each workshop includes a role-play element or group activity to encourage everyone to take part and to kick-start sessions.

Support materials to facilitate delivery

- A full range of support materials including lesson plans, worksheets, answer sheets, teachers’ notes and advice are included in each workshop.- Where relevant, excerpts from pertinent laws are also included.

Ease of use

- For whole-class teaching on an interactive whiteboard or with a data projector.- Online resource allows instant access.- Simple navigation and easy to use tools.- Sessions are designed to be led either by a teacher or a visiting lawyer.

Take a look at sample content from Freshfields Insight – Life at a Law Firm. This short extract shows Freshfields lawyer, Ruth Kelly, talking about her job and the skills she uses. This forms part of an exercise to help students understand more about the day-to-day life of a lawyer, and is used to give them an understanding of the relevant skill sets required.